Posted
by
Zonk
on Friday December 01, 2006 @10:56AM
from the kiss-your-conversations-goodbye dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As of today [Friday], certain U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees, in accordance with new federal rules. In April the Supreme Court began requiring companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce 'electronically stored information' as part of the discovery process of a trial." From the article: "Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of 'virtual shredding,' said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation. 'There are hundreds of "e-discovery vendors" and these businesses raked in approximately $1.6 billion in 2006, [James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co.] said. .'"

These are NEW rules? and they refer to an IT worker copying over TAPE? Does this mean I should be saving all my carbon paper too? how about punch cards?
Might all this extra data clog the system of tubes that is the internet?

"If your CFO has been escorted out of the building on the national news by people with big yellow letters on their backs...""If the new guy in the office spends all his spare time chatting up his sleeve instead of the secretary...""If your office phone system now says Press 1 for Customer Service, Press 2 for Public Defenders...""If they show Dennis Kozlowski on Biography and your boss snorts "Huh. Pikers...""if you check your email and a cheery voice announces "You've got bail!"